People are getting away with murder for 23 years

THE EDITOR: Will the Government, the Opposition and those in the legal profession please stop yakking about the escalating crime and quit employing mediocre crime-prevention measures until they get their act together and start administering the appropriate punishment our laws endorse for murder?

Given their official status, they all are aware that it would take co-operation to get this done.

They are not offering any hope to the nation with their continuous gibbering. On the contrary, they have become repetitious and nauseating while the murder toll continues to skyrocket.

Here we have the Government talking about all the measures it has put or intends to put in place to keep crime down, but the murder toll tells a different story.

Then we have the Opposition members who are forever claiming they have the answers if given another chance in power. In 2011, after a year in government, they instituted what they termed a limited state of emergency to battle the murder spree. Nonetheless there were still hundreds of murders every year for their remaining four years in power.

Sometimes you can’t help wondering if the Opposition members, whoever they are at any given time, when the murder toll skyrockets, behave in a way that would increase their chances of being re-elected,

Then we have some people in legal positions who, while criticising the Government’s crime-fighting efforts, continue to assiduously defend the accused even in the face of overwhelming evidence.

We have laws that approve penalties for wounding, and so it is with larceny, illegal firearms, illegal drugs and sexual offences. And since there are still instances of these crimes, can we even begin to imagine what our crime situation would have been like if the penalties for these offences were totally abandoned for 23 years?

And that is exactly what is happening as far as the appropriate sentence for the most serious crime – murder – is concerned. We have completely abolished hanging for the last 23 years.

And we are now reaping the results. Could the media please provide the murder toll for the past 23 years?

All the above mentioned – legal people, politicians (some of whom are also legal personnel) – and even the criminals are all very conscious of this situation.

The only group of people I can justify for any shortfall in the fight against crime are the police. They are the ones who are engaged in physical encounters, eg, gun battles and high-speed chases with the criminals, only to face the legal people doing all in their power to get the criminals free.

Years ago, the victims of this horrendous crime were mostly men who might have been engaged in illegal activities. Today, women and even little children are paying a high price as victims of these monsters.

Unfortunately, as a nation we, especially those who possess the legal proficiency to see true justice prevail, have seemingly lost not just the tenacity, but apparently all human compassion.

One of the public holidays we celebrate is Independence Day. I truly believe we should discard that celebration because we are definitely not independent.

LLOYD RAGOO

Chaguanas